Mario Jean is getting older. It’s not us who say it, it’s the comedian himself who informs us in unspoken words, through the reflections and observations of his new show, Imperfect happiness… and other tutti quanti of life! A proposal reflecting the vagaries of advancing age: punctuated by ups and downs.
The title of this seventh one man showofficially launched as a Montreal premiere at the Théâtre Maisonneuve on Tuesday, suggests that Mario Jean, 59 years old, will elaborate on happiness in the broad sense. This is even the reason for his downfall, when he leaves his audience declaring that “happiness will never be perfect”.
However, listening to the man recount a stay in the emergency room after a saw had attacked his fingers, his relationship which had become hazardous with his bladder, his 39 years of married life, his wife’s menopause and his own andropause, we notes that it is above all the weight of the years which inspired his new material. Or his fear of. Our fervent Canadian Tire customer nevertheless seems serene and skillfully handles self-deprecation, without avoiding a few commonplaces.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Mario Jean
Spiritual heir
The relationship is obvious between Tommy Néron, star of the first part, and Mario Jean. The spiritual heir articulates his act around the difference between generations. Children today? “They are easy to spot, they have Epipen in their necks and they have opinions”, skull Néron (to whom we will gently remind that the show Two girls in the morning no longer exists and his gag on this subject should be updated). His eldest comes back with the same refrain an hour later, making fun of performance anxiety at primary school age, when, he quips, repeating a year is now prohibited. “You won’t fail, you’re not even sure you’ll have a teacher! », he decrees while the audience shows its assent with applause.
Mario, for his part, is three decades older than Tommy, and that is essentially where his point lies. Which opens with sound samples of an old radio spewing La vie en roseby Piaf, then that of Valiquette, after which the jubilarian moves on to the medical assessment: tonsils, masturbation and the atmosphere of the emergency room, worthy of imagery, with a hook towards the zealous son at the wheel.
It deviates on the signs of aging: the pillbox now serving as a diary, the cough now risky, the sounds and other “oupelaille » immediately associated with life experience. Nothing new, but superbly reported, like everything else, in fact.
We hold our breath when the episode of the sponsorship of a little African through World Vision arrives (and his physical description), fearful of hearing the limits of good taste cracked. People laugh politely; honor is safe. Barely.
Nevertheless, a young Alexandre Barrette had already sufficiently taken the World Vision niche in a vignette that made him famous for us to cry out for ingenuity here. Same caution when Mario Jean adds more by imagining a future coach of the Canadian of Mexican origin. “It’s certain that we won’t make the series, because he, in April, is embarking on the cucumbers in Saint-Rémi…”
Menopause and andropause section, the artist meticulously depicts the ailments accompanying the two states, hot flashes and mood swings for the lady, fatigue of the male member and drop in libido for the man. Hats off to the pharmaceutical industry, less eager to cure the pain of some than eager to resolve the erectile problems of others.
And if a purchase of its sweet at sex shop may complicate him, our cheerful fifty-year-old assumes his virility enough to imagine himself frolicking with “a handsome man, tall, muscular, shaved, deaf, mute and blind”, a little younger than him… if the Earth were to be struck by a meteorite. “I would be curious to be bicurious…”
Expressive
Claiming his usual stage persona with a sometimes dazed air, who could sometimes be himself, sometimes a neighbor with an understanding of the world a little lower than that of the average bear, Mario Jean exploits a skillful talent as an actor in this honest service, without big surprises, but effective. It does not move a lot of air on stage, but embodies its text expressively in its pretty decor of rectangular panels decorated with evolving patterns.
His peers sharing his many realities, quite rarely addressed in humor, will undoubtedly recognize themselves in Imperfect happiness… Others will certainly enjoy it. Faithful to his essence, the Mario Jean at the rendezvous presents himself without sweetening, by not trying to imitate the Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais and Mathieu Dufour in vogue at the moment, an authenticity which honors him. After all, what’s the point of pretending when you’re old enough to wear your sleep apnea mask?
Visit the comedian’s website
Imperfect happiness… and other tutti quanti of life!
On tour throughout Quebec